Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/76207
SALES & MARKETING Ten Ways To Fire-Up Your Business That Work BY JOHN GRAHAM In high school, we learned Shakespeare's in- delible words, "What's past is prologue." But that's where we stopped,missing the key part of the bard's advice: "Whereof what's past is pro- logue; what to come, In your and my dis- charge." It's a clear message: don't depend on what's happened so far; it's all in your hands now. If that's true, then don't waste time on gim- micks that sound great but fizzle faster than fire- works in San Diego bay on the Fourth of July or putting the blame on "changing business con- ditions." Unload all the "prologue" stuff and make the moves that make a difference today. With that guidance, here are 10 ways to fire-up a business: 1.Get themessaging right.When someone says, "The ultimate driving machine," there's no need to say more. It's BMW. Then there's "America's Favorite Ketchup." There's no need to say Heinz. Most businesses fail to take advantage of ef- fective messaging by sending conflicting mes- sages or focusing on themselves andmeaningless peripheral junk rather than the customer. The place to start is to make sure every em- ployee is trained and then held accountable for delivering the same compelling customer-fo- cused message, day in and day out. 2. Tell it like it is. U.S. Army general and former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, was asked to name the book that made him want to a writer. "My checkbook," he replied, pointing out that his 38 years in the military limited his income. He needed to improve his finances, particularly after putting three kids through col- lege. There was none of the often-heard blather- ing about "having a life-long dream of being a writer." The motivation was simple: he needed AUGUST 2012 26 THE JOURNAL money. If you want to be trusted, tell it like it is. 3. Make it easy for employees to work. There's an abysmalmount of ancientMSOffice software in use every day, along with an array of other outdated stuff. Old, slow printers are everywhere, wasting hours of time every month. Desktop computers are manacles, tethering employees to their desks. Every salesperson should have an iPad, as well as anyone who must get up and check on anything. It's strange. When a business executive wants something, it's called a "wise and neces- sary investment." But when an employeemakes a similar request, the boss labels it an expense that's "not in the budget." 4. Figure out the future. Five of Fiat's plants in Italy produced 650,000 cars with 22,000 workers in 2009, while one plant in Poland turned out 600,000 vehicles with only 6,100 workers, according to aWall Street Jour- nal report. Dramatic changes are on the way if businesses are to survive, and no one who receives a pay- check is exempt. It's taken a long time to fig- ure out that "creative destruction" is a fact, and not a textbook term. By the way, change is on the way at Italy's Fiat plants. 5. Hire the right people. The current ac- cent on employees "having the right skillsets" is a "red herring." The concept, fostered by for- profit and public schools and colleges, aided and abetted by politicians and eagerly espoused by employers. One outfit is partnering with a top public university to offer one-year online "certificate" programs" for retiring Boomers at $10,000 a shot. If that's not nonsense, it's close to it. What will those who plunk down their retire- ment funds to pay the tuition have at the end of 12-months? A job or a certificate to hang on the wall? The major problem facing businesses is find- ing employees who know how to think induc- tively and deductively, who understand what they're asked to do and why, who evaluate ac- curately, recognize problems before they occur, offer creative solutions, see the big picture and communicate clearly. Anyone with these "skill sets" can easily adapt to changing requirements and move into new situations easily and suc- cessfully. 6.Alignmarketing and sales. This is no job for wimps. It's tough but worthwhile. If too many marketers are prima donnas, too many salespeople are hopelessly narcissistic, which makes it nearly impossible to get them aligned successfully. Even so, marketing and sales are two sides of the samecoin: marketing creates customers and sales gets the orders. Not too complicated. Believe it or not, no company can thrive today if one or both act as if the other doesn't or shouldn't exist. If marketing fails to culti- vate customers continuously, it's failing to do the job and so is sales, when it fails to meet the numbers. Alignment's a necessity, not an option. 7. Give, not give back. Yes, there's a dif- ference, a big one. "Giving back" lets CEOs get all puffed up and ponderous, making certain everyone knows how gener- ous, caring and wonderful they are. Giving's different. It's an act of concern and commitment and it's also \ 28